KW V2 impressions and settings

[Meister]

As somebody said earlier on this forum, referring to both John Hennessey's superb pricing and the world-class performance of the KW Variant 2 coilovers - RUN, DON'T WALK to get a set of these on your ride. I'll second that, particularly if greatly improved handling and safety is anywhere in your priority list.

Teamed up with Hotchkis Sport anti-sways, these KWs are truly the ultimate suspension mod for the LX Hemis. The install was finished Thursday night, and I have since put approx. 700 demanding, highly-spirited, miles on them.

The performance results from the combination of the KWs and the Hotchkis bars are remarkable. The term CARVE now has clear and precise meaning. And gone completely is the nasty steering wheel kick all too common with our stock suspension and stock ContiSeals when encountering a bump with the suspension loaded.

They are the match, and more, of the SRT8 suspension - no little praise - a point demonstrated at both high speeds and in super-tight, gnarly, twisties. At traction limits in high G turns the car remains flat - I was unable to intentionally induce body roll.

Basic city manners are improved also. One killer speed bump near my residence was barely tolerable at 11 mph with my stock suspension. A test run at 15 mph with the KWs showed much less pitch and rebound, and was significantly more comfortable than with the stock suspension at 20% or so less speed. Transiting uneven surface heights and textures at an angle no longer requires steering wheel input to maintain course.

My settings:
Springs: Total drop: Rear 1 /1/4", Front 1 3/8.
Rake: 1/2"
Rebound damping: Front: 2 turns, Rear: 1 turn.
Alignment: I split the difference between Hennessey Performance recommendations for fastest lap time, and factory settings. Toe-in is zero.

On my car these settings are so near perfect that I'll not be changing anything anytime soon - I'll merely be enjoying the tremendous refinement to handling and responsiveness.

[mikew2069]

Originally Posted by Meister

As somebody said earlier on this forum, referring to both John Hennessey's superb pricing and the world-class performance of the KW Variant 2 coilovers - RUN, DON'T WALK to get a set of these on your ride. I'll second that, particularly if greatly improved handling and safety is anywhere in your priority list.

Teamed up with Hotchkis Sport anti-sways, these KWs are truly the ultimate suspension mod for the LX Hemis. The install was finished Thursday night, and I have since put approx. 700 demanding, highly-spirited, miles on them.

The performance results from the combination of the KWs and the Hotchkis bars are remarkable. The term CARVE now has clear and precise meaning. And gone completely is the nasty steering wheel kick all too common with our stock suspension and stock ContiSeals when encountering a bump with the suspension loaded.

They are the match, and more, of the SRT8 suspension - no little praise - a point demonstrated at both high speeds and in super-tight, gnarly, twisties. At traction limits in high G turns the car remains flat - I was unable to intentionally induce body roll.

Basic city manners are improved also. One killer speed bump near my residence was barely tolerable at 11 mph with my stock suspension. A test run at 15 mph with the KWs showed much less pitch and rebound, and was significantly more comfortable than with the stock suspension at 20% or so less speed. Transiting uneven surface heights and textures at an angle no longer requires steering wheel input to maintain course.

My settings:
Springs: Total drop: Rear 1 /1/4", Front 1 3/8.
Rake: 1/2"
Rebound damping: Front: 2 turns, Rear: 1 turn.
Alignment: I split the difference between Hennessey Performance recommendations for fastest lap time, and factory settings. Toe-in is zero.

On my car these settings are so near perfect that I'll not be changing anything anytime soon - I'll merely be enjoying the tremendous refinement to handling and responsiveness.

Meister,

That really was a fantastic write up.....I have mine set at 2.5 turns in the front and 1 turn in the back and am pretty happy. My drop is pretty aggresive (there is about 1/2" gap front and back)....I think I need to break down and get the sway bars.....

[BBSRT8]

Good write up meister. You got me all excited talking about how well the KWs perform. You have totally convinced me that this was a worthwhile purchase and I can't wait to get the installation done. I'll start (and hopefully finish) my tomorrow.

[fatchance]

I had teh privilage to drive Meister car and it is all that and then some. Althogh I do have the KW V2, I don't have the Hotchkis sway bars, yet. My car handles great and my drop, well is a little more aggressive. The front is down 2" and the rear at 2 1/4", there's a tad bit of day light there. But where I really was the difference with the sway bars. I feel sorry for the young buck who rolls up next to Meister and thinks he's going to school him, they will just get their back sides handed to them.

Meister had a couple of other nice mods of interest. The jet chip, unreal the power band was nice and clean. The car really responded and reacted on the money. The GSM fan mod, nice. The last was the led cabin lights, that really finishes off the interior.


Meister has really done this car right and he drive's it like he stole it.

[chasb]

Originally Posted by fatchance

I had teh privilage to drive Meister car and it is all that and then some. Althogh I do have the KW V2, I don't have the Hotchkis sway bars, yet. My car handles great and my drop, well is a little more aggressive. The front is down 2" and the rear at 2 1/4", there's a tad bit of day light there. But where I really was the difference with the sway bars. I feel sorry for the young buck who rolls up next to Meister and thinks he's going to school him, they will just get their back sides handed to them.

Meister had a couple of other nice mods of interest. The jet chip, unreal the power band was nice and clean. The car really responded and reacted on the money. The GSM fan mod, nice. The last was the led cabin lights, that really finishes off the interior.


Meister has really done this car right and he drive's it like he stole it.

Meister is my guru for all my mods. I take the cue from him for most everything and he's the best for advice.

[300CUL8R]

BBSRT8 I'm looking forward to your review. I'm not convinced that the addition of the KWII and sway bars will add enough to the SRT8s existing ride to warrant the cost.

Plus I want to hear about the change in everyday driving not just at the track where my ride never goes.

Any SRT8s with the KW feel free to chime in.

[BBSRT8]

Well, I finished installing the KWs and The Hotchkis swaybars about 1:00 PM today (three hours today and three hours yesterday. Not to bad). After taking a little break and rechecking all the fasteners I put the tires back on and took a little drive. I immediately could feel the difference in the ride quality. It was firmer without being overly harsh. I can now "feel" the road much better than I did with the stock setup.

I have the shocks adjusted to KWs recommended settings and I think it should be fine for now. Once I get some more driving time in, I may make small adjustments and see how I like them.

I didn't push the car hard for the first 20 minutes. I just drove it on some roads that I know are a little rough to get an idea how the suspension would react. While it is an improvement over the stock SRT8 suspension, it wasn't a huge one. I may feel different later on as I get in more driving time in varying conditions.

When I decided to start getting more agressive, I was very impressed with the way she now handles. Quick lanes changes were very stable and this thing was staying flat even when taking turns at a fairly high rate of speed (without breaking the law of course). I would have to say that the Hotchkis swaybars are a very big improvement over the stock ones.

I wasn't able to get more than an hour to play with my new mod, but I will experiment some more when I get back on the 23rd (Duty calls and I got to get underway tommorrow).

Some tips about the install:

If you are planning on doing the swaybars (and I highly recommend that you do), save yourself some hassle by buying them now and put them on at the same time that you install the suspension. You will already have most of the steps required to be accomplished done anyway and it would be a pain in the butt to have to repeat all that work later. I am glad somebody convinced me to get them now.

When I got to the part where I needed to remove the coil from the front shock I couldn't find my spring compressor (honestly, I have one somewhere). Thank goodness for the local part store and their free loaner tools. The spring compressor (at least the one I had) was too big to fit on the tightly wound coils of the KW springs. After trying to force it to work and getting frustrated, I figured out I could just adjust the adjusting ring all the way down, install the spring and get the nut on, then adjust the adjusting ring back up. No spring compressor needed!

I also needed to modify the top boot on the front shocks. I had to cut off the lower portion because it didn't fit inside the new coil.

I'll post more info when I get back and do some more driving..

[Meister]

(Copied from my recent post in another thread, but pertinent here as well)

Just back from one of life's finer weekends.

Let me tell you, the tremendous driveability improvement that the Jet Chip provides the LX Hemi is nowhere more apparent than when flogging it in the tight twisties. Motor and transmission were instantly responsive to the demands of repeated quick cycles of WOT to ABS chatter to WOT....

Under those extremely demanding conditions the stock SRT8s I was running with in the mountains above San Diego were at least equalled by the combination of the instant responsiveness of my drivetrain and the superior suspension that the KW/Hotchkis combo provides my sweet C, most notably in the tightest, gnarliest, sections.

In terms of responsiveness, suspension, and overall balanced package there was one clear winner at the end of 45 spirited minutes of WOT flogging - Jet Chip and the KW V2/Hotchkis anti-sway killer suspension combo.

[crhemi]

Are you say your car outperformed the 2 Srt8's?

[Meister]

Originally Posted by crhemi

Are you say your car outperformed the 2 Srt8's?

That's correct.